Learning About Litter

What is it?

Litter is any product or material that is lying around on our highways, parks, beaches or streets that doesn't belong there.

Litter can happen accidentally by blowing in the wind, but often it is because of our carelessness by not taking the time to dispose of our garbage properly.

Why should you care?

You should care about litter because it affects all of us. There are many reasons why everyone should do their part to eliminate litter.

• Litter is unsightly to look at (especially in your own community).
• Litter it can be damaging to our environment affecting plant and wildlife.
• Litter is dangerous (example: broken glass).
• Litter is unsanitary and can carry disease (example: pet droppings).

If everyone does their part to reduce the amount of litter, our community will be much more plant and animal friendly and a beautiful and safe place to live.

Interesting Facts About Litter

• Most litter occurs within 5 m of a receptacle.
• Most litter is food wrap/containers and cigarette butts.
• The average distance that someone will typically carry some trash before littering is 12 paces.
• There are 8,000 tonnes of cigarette butts dropped by Canadians each year, the majority within 10 feet of an ashtray. It takes 10 years for the filter to biodegrade.
• People under age of 25 more likely to litter in a group; people over the age of 25 most likely to litter when alone.
• Glass bottles take 1 million years to biodegrade.
• If 5% of Canada’s population picks up 1kg of litter in one day, 1.4 million kg of garbage won’t pollute our seas.

One in five littered items is a cigarette, making cigarette butts the most littered item worldwide

Each year, the 52 billion cigarettes smoked by five million Canadian smokers contribute almost 5,000 tonnes of pollutants into the atmosphere.

While it can take an estimated 25 years for a cigarette to biodegrade, there are debates over whether or not a cigarette filter can ever breakdown.

Visit: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/April2008/29/c2244.html for more information.